K. Durga Prasad, outgoing Director-General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), said on Monday that the Centre never asked him to “continue or stop the use of pellet guns” against protesters in the Kashmir Valley, which has seen a surge of violence since July 8 last year after an alleged Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist, Burhan Wani, was killed in an encounter.
Mr. Prasad said the CRPF had modified the pellet guns with a “deflector” to minimise any physical harm to the protesters in the Valley.
The deflector will be an attachment on the muzzle end to prevent the pellets from hitting the face and upper part of the body.
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Mr. Prasad said though the number of stone-throwing incidents had come down in the past four months, he was not in a position to certify that its cause was demonetisation. The government had earlier said that the scrapping of old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes had led to a sharp decline in the number of stone-throwing incidents.
Asked if the Home Ministry had asked him to stop the use of pellet guns, Mr. Prasad said, “Nobody asked me to continue or stop their use. I have been given a task, our boys are doing a great job of performing it. The decision will be taken by the man on the ground. Petrol bombs were thrown at us but we showed restraint.”
Mr. Prasad retires on February 28.
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The CRPF is the largest Central force deployed in Jammu and Kashmir for counter-insurgency as well as law-and-order operations. The government is yet to announce his successor.
The government faced severe criticism for using the pellet guns, and several political parties had asked for its complete withdrawal.
During his visit to Kashmir on August 24 and 25 last year, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said an alternative to pellet guns would be given to security forces in the coming days. “These guns were earlier considered non-lethal but some incidents have taken place … an alternative will be given,” Mr. Singh had said.
Disputes numbers
On the large number of people who lost their vision after being hit by pellets, Mr. Prasad said: “The numbers given to me about people losing their eyes [to pellet guns] is much less than what is being made out. Yes, people have been injured, they have got pellet injuries in their face and hand, that’s why we have made our own deflectors, to ensure that pellets don’t cause much damage.”
Another CRPF official said, “We have asked our men to fire at the feet now. With deflectors, there is only a two per cent chance that the shot fired may hit above the abdomen as compared to the rate of 40 per cent earlier.”
He said none of their operations had been suspended due to stone-pelting incidents.
“When there is an operation going on, some locals do throw stones at us but no operation has been suspended halfway because of stone-pelting. Locals obstruct our operations under duress. They are being pressurised and are under threat by militants,” Mr. Prasad said.
Mr. Prasad said the CRPF would soon use a robot to detect IEDs and explosives in the areas affected by Left-wing extremism. He said the capabilities of the robotic device were being ascertained in consultation with the IIT, Bombay.
Using the device, hidden bombs beneath the dirt tracks or ‘pucca’ roads could be identified and safely defused, Mr. Prasad said. He said 2016 had the ‘lowest level’ of violence in the LWE-affected areas and the force estimates that the weapon and ammunition strength of the Maoists has come down to a large extent.